The peripheral neuropathies are common and serious health problems often associated with prolonged morbidity and even death. The present grant proposal requests support for a group of investigators at the Mayo Clinic and at The Hormel Institute who have previously collaborated and who now have organized themselves into a Peripheral Neuropathy Clinical Research Center in order to conduct multi-disciplinary, basic and targeted research studies into the cause and treatment of the diabetic neuropathies, of heavy metal neuropathies, of inflammatory polyradiculoneuropathies, of autonomic neuropathies, and of inherited neuropathies. Both in the neuropathies of man and experimental animals, studies are directed at: understanding the mechanism of nerve fiber degeneration and regeneration at the cellular, subcellular and molecular levels; at determining the efficacy of specific treatments; at finding improved methods of detection, characterization, and monitoring of neurologic deficits of patients with neuropathy; and at understanding the mechanisms of neuropathic symptomatology.